PARIS — A Paris court found Monday 10 people guilty of cyberbullying France’s first lady Brigitte Macron.

The court convicted all defendants to sentences, ranging from a cyberbullying awareness training to 8-month suspended prison sentences.

The court pointed to “particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious” comments referring to false claims regarding alleged trans identity and alleged pedo criminality targeting Brigitte Macron.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

A Paris court is to rule on Monday in a case involving 10 people accused of cyberbullying French first lady Brigitte Macron by spreading false online claims about her gender and sexuality, allegations her daughter said damaged her health and family life.

The defendants, eight men and two women aged 41 to 65, are accused of posting “numerous malicious comments” falsely claiming that President Emmanuel Macron ’s wife was born a man and linking the 24-year age gap with her husband to pedophilia. Some of the posts were viewed tens of thousands of times.

Brigitte Macron did not attend the two-day trial in October. Speaking on TF1 national television Sunday, she said she launched legal proceedings to “set an example” in the fight against harassment.

Her daughter, Tiphaine Auzière, testified about what she described as the “deterioration” of her mother’s life since the online harassment intensified. “She cannot ignore the horrible things said about her,” Auzière told the court. She said the impact has extended to the entire family, including Macron’s grandchildren.

Defendant Delphine Jegousse, 51, who is known as Amandine Roy and describes herself as a medium and an author, is considered to have played a major role in spreading the rumor after she released a four-hour video on her YouTube channel in 2021.

The X account of Aurélien Poirson-Atlan, 41, known as Zoé Sagan on social media, was suspended in 2024 after his name was cited in several judicial investigations.

Other defendants include an elected official, a teacher and a computer scientist. Several told the court their comments were intended as humor or satire and said they did not understand why they were being prosecuted. They face up to two years in prison if convicted.

The case follows years of conspiracy theories falsely alleging that Brigitte Macron was born under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux, which is actually the name of her brother. The Macrons have also filed a defamation suit in the United States against conservative influencer Candace Owens.

The Macrons, who have been married since 2007, first met at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher. Brigitte Macron, 24 years her husband’s senior, was then called Brigitte Auzière, a married mother of three.

Emmanuel Macron, 48, has been France’s president since 2017.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Social media platforms must report monthly how many children’s accounts they close once Australia begins enforcing its 16-year age limit next week, a minister said Wednesday.

Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube would face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) from Dec. 10 if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove accounts of Australian children younger than 16. Livestreaming service Twitch was added to the list of age-restricted platforms less than two weeks ago.

The Australian eSafety Commissioner will send the 10 platforms notices on Dec. 11 demanding information about the numbers of accounts removed. Monthly notices would follow for six months.

“The government recognizes that age assurance may require several days or weeks to complete fairly and accurately,” Communications Minister Anika Wells told the National Press Club of Australia.

“However, if eSafety identifies systemic breaches of the law, the platforms will face fines,” she added. The eSafety regulator said a court would apply the penalty up to the maximum if the platform had repeated violations.

Google said Wednesday that anyone in Australia under 16 would be signed out of its platform YouTube from Dec. 10 and lose features accessible only to account holders such as playlists.

Google would determine YouTube account holders’ ages based on personal data contained in associated Google accounts and other signals.

“We have consistently said this rushed legislation misunderstands our platform, the way young Australians use it and, most importantly, it does not fulfill its promise to make kids safer online,” a Google statement said.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads, said suspected young children will be removed from those platforms from Thursday.

Account holders 16 and older who were mistakenly removed could contact Yoti Age Verification and verify their age by providing government-issued IDs or a video selfie, Meta said.

The Sydney-based rights group Digital Freedom Project is hoping the High Court will issue an injunction preventing the law from taking effect next week.

A court hearing date had not been set by Wednesday.

“Over the coming months, we will fight to defend this law in the High Court because parents … right across Australia asked for government to step up,” Wells said.

Last month, the Malaysian government said it would ban social media accounts for children younger than 16 from 2026.

Wells said the European Commission, France, Denmark, Greece, Romania and New Zealand were also interesting in setting a minimum age for social media.